


things we tie together

by orphan_account



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Ben lives, F/M, Fluff, Kylo Ren Redemption, Mutual Pining, One Shot, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Spoilers, fixit for rise of skywalker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:41:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23694079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Rey brings a redeemed Ben to a safe planet to heal. Time passes. Neither speaks of the kiss.Until.. one day. When a bad hair day turns into a very good day indeed
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 2
Kudos: 62





	things we tie together

Rey hadn’t cared much about her hair, while she’d lived on Jakku. There hadn’t been time to worry much about it, beyond her usual business-like twisting of it into three knots, or the occasional messy, high bun on days that the sun seemed even hotter than usual.

But that, like so many other things, was before.

Before she found BB-8. Before she joined the Resistance. Before she became a Jedi.

And now she lived in the after.

After she had lost her teachers. After she had found out her parentage.

After she had saved the life of Ben Skywalker and brought him to a

She missed those days sometimes, when she woke in the middle of the night in a silent room in the ancient ruins she’d made into a home.

She was good at making homes out of ruined things. She hoped she was just as good at making a new person out of the ruined man who kept her company.

Ben didn’t sleep in the ruins. Rey wasn’t quite sure where he slept, or even if he was capable of finding rest. When they met in the mornings, there was always a grey shadow beneath his dark eyes and a weariness in his voice.

The shadows usually faded by mid-morning, after they prepared breakfast together and meditated, side by side, eyes closed and hearts open to all the gentle light the Force could offer.

By late afternoon, it seemed like he remembered how to smile again. Today, especially, there was more than a little glint of humor in his dark eyes. She’d often thought he must have been a jovial child; all giggles and grins. 

How could he not have been a happy child, surrounded by such love? 

She wished she could talk to him about his parents, ask him about his childhood. But those wounds are still too raw, even if it’s been long enough for their physical wounds to heal.

Even if it had been long enough for her hair to grow, long enough for it to shade her eyes and tickle her nose when she tried to concentrate.

Like now.

Eyes squeezed shut, she huffs out a breath, trying hard to rustle the offending lock curled over her nose.

“Let me help,” Ben says, so softly she nearly thinks its her imagination.

But no, even when they have been lightyears apart, she has never imagined his voice. Instead, she has always felt it, a pressure deep in her bones, both familiar and sometimes terrifying. A connection they cannot speak of, a longing they cannot name.

“Please?” Ben adds. “You’ve been fidgeting for a half-hour.”

She opens one eye. “Which means you haven’t been meditating.”

He ducks his head, a blush appearing over the bridge of his nose. “Maybe.”

Rey arches her eyebrow.

“Possibly,” Ben says.

She purses her lips.

“It is highly likely,” he finally admits. 

Rey chuckles, then, shaking her head, which only serves to free more locks of hair, until the whole messy bun comes tumbling down in a wild cascade. “Oh.” She lifts one strand of hair. “Darn it.”

He stands, then, moves so he is once again seated, but now, next to her, close enough that she catches the scent of his skin; warm and slightly spicy, as if he is an expensive dessert in a fancy bakery.

Rey giggles at her own metaphor, which is admittedly a little ridiculous.

“Something wrong?” Ben asks, sounding almost hurt. “Did I…”

“No, no. You’re fine.” Without thinking, she places her hand on his knee, the way she’d reassure any friend. The touch races through her, as wild as lightning, as hot as a flame. It has been six months since they had any sort of physical contact, six months of them circling each other like loth cats.

Six months of her dreaming about the kiss and never speaking of it.

And all of those six months condense, then disappear, in the moment that his hand moves to cover hers, until she feels as if she is back on Exegol, and back to the moment where Ben fought for his life.

Back to the moment, where they had brought each other back, and began the rest of their lives.

The moment flies away and she is once more here, on this remote rainforest planet, sitting next to Ben, with his hand covering hers and her heart thudding hard in his chest.

_Why are you scared?_ His voice whispers in her mind, as gentle as a feather.

And yet, she jumps, pulling away from him.

“S-sorry,” he stammers out-loud now, his voice nervous and so shy. “I didn’t mean to.”

Rey swallows, hard. With one trembling hand, she pushes the hair away from her face. It had been so long since he’d talked to her like that, so long since she’d felt that close to him.

And oh, how much she missed it.

“Ben…” she says, his name the sweetest thing, the best proof of this new life in the aftermath of war. “I believe you.”

“I’m glad.” 

Another long moment passes. She wishes she knew what to say, but she’s rubbish at emotions and even worse at interactions. She wishes this was as easy as rebuilding a droid or flying a ship. Instead of speaking, she fights with her unruly hair.

“Let me help,” he says again. He holds out his hands. “Turn around. Let me help.”

Now it’s her turn to stutter, the simple word getting caught in her throat. “Oh--okay.” Carefully, she moves in front of the man who had once terrified her. 

“Relax,” Ben says.

Rey nods, as if this is just another lesson in the Force.

A moment later, Ben’s fingers comb through her tangled mess of hair. His touch is gentle, never prying or tugging too harshly. The simple physical touch threatens to unravel everything Rey has held so tightly. She bites her lip.

“You’re tensing,” he says. “Are you scared?”

She thinks about lying, but that’s never worked well with him. “Yes,” she says.

“Don’t be,” he replies. “Trust me.”

Rey closes her eyes, focusing on the sensation. A moment later, she realizes she does trust him. Completely. That this time together, in the after, away from all of that which had occurred before, they have both changed. 

She feels him twist and organize her locks. A moment later, he starts to hum. The sound is so new, so rare, that she stills, refusing to speak and ruin the moment. The song is pleasant. Familiar. A little off-key.

Rey realizes that Han had hummed it once, on the Falcon, while they had journeyed together.

Shyly, she matches the rhythm, humming along with Ben as if she is there, in his memories of a better time.

Of a better before.

She doesn’t know how to admit she hopes that there is a better after for them too. A thousand more days like this, with his fingers in her hair and her heart full of song.

He keeps braiding her hair, each movement somehow more wonderful than the last.

“There,” Ben says, a small eternity later. “Turn around. Let me see you.”

Rey puts one hand up to her head, to feel his handiwork. “Oh,” she gasps out. Her heart is suddenly very full. As full as her eyes are full of tears. “Ben,” she says, as her fingers glide over a braided crown.

“You look lovely,” he says. “I’m… I’m so sorry. I don’t have a holo-mirror, or a--”

“It’s perfect.” Rey can picture the hairstyle. After all, it’s the same one his mother had once twisted into Rey’s hair, after a long day of training. “It’s so perfect.” Rey bites her lip once more, nervous. Because although she cannot see her own hair, she can see the hope in Ben’s own eyes, and that is enough to shatter her heart.

She wants so much and is afraid to speak of any of it.

But this small moment, this had been a bridge. This could be its own version of a before, with a sweeter after hovering just ahead of them.

Once more, she places her hand on his knee. 

Through their impossible, unbreakable, bond, she whispers, “ _thank you. It’s perfect. Like you.”_

Ben’s dark eyes widen, as if all of the depths of space were held within their reflection. He opens his mouth, ready to disagree. Ready to insist that he is broken, flawed, ruined.

Rey doesn’t give him that chance.

Instead, she leans forward and kisses him, hard, on the lips.

A moment later, his arms wrap around her. One holding her close, locked around her waist. The other, curved around her head, his fingertips brushing over the braid that represented so much. A window into his past. A hope for the future.

The kiss deepens, as the two find everything they had longed for met in all the other dreamed of. Rey smiles against his lips.

_“Thank you,”_ she whispers once more, as together, they move together into their own happily ever after.


End file.
